


square glass box

by spj



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: AAANGSTT, Angst, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Minor Character Death, kinda dark!tiki too, maybe even a slight dark!marinette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-06-09 23:21:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6928339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spj/pseuds/spj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Forgiving the de-akumatized victims of Papillon is too easy. That's just not human nature.</p>
            </blockquote>





	square glass box

**Author's Note:**

> AAAANGSTTT. you have been forewarned. consider this your warning. there is a suicide, but it's referenced, not described. there may be a smidge of dark!marinette, but it's barely there. barely dark!tiki too. also, it's 2am, and i haven't edited this yet.  
> maybe slight ooc?  
> as always, nod to fins.  
> (on a slightly lighter note, reference to hunter x hunter yeaahhhh)

“Hey,” Marinette whispered to Alya during a quiet work period, “where’s Nathanaël?”

Alya waited for the teacher to pass, then whispered back, “You haven’t noticed? He hasn’t been in school for two weeks! Parents were saying they didn’t want their children to be in school with a villain, and forced him to withdraw.”

“But that’s not fair!” Marinette said loudly.

The teacher silenced her with a glare, and Marinette said repeated quietly, “But that’s not fair. It’s not his fault, Papillon—”

“I know,” Alya said, “but people are saying that there must have been something bad in him before, for Papillon to corrupt.”

Marinette glared at Alya reproachfully, and Alya held up her hand in a placating gesture. “Whoa girl, don’t look at me like that; I’m just saying what everyone else has been saying.”

They had only resumed working for a few minutes when Marinette came to a horrifying revelation. “Wait, Alya—weren’t you…?”

Alya looked down at her tablet, unusually subdued, and shrugged. “I got lucky,” she said. “Sometimes Ladybug unmasks the akumatized villain where there’s news coverage, but when I came to, we were on an abandoned rooftop, so no one knew it was me. And I didn’t tell anyone except you. So.”

“Alya, I didn’t.” Marinette stopped. She didn’t know? She didn’t _know_ that this was happening? Even before she said it the excuse rang falsely in her ears. 

How could she let this happen? What kind of superhero was she?

She had to set this right. _Ladybug_ had to set this right.

From the corner of her eye, she could see Tiki brooding in her purse.

 

Ladybug and Chat Noir defeated Bungee Gum and saved the day and as long as the cameras were already on her, Marinette felt it was a good time to speak or forever hold her peace.

She swung up onto a lamppost for greater visibility. “Um, excuse me! Paris! I, um.”

Chat Noir smiled encouragingly at her and gave her a thumbs up, before pointing at his ring, winking, and running off into the winding streets of Paris.

“I—right.” Marinette blinked. “I have… a favor to ask of you. As you already know, the villain Papillon takes advantage of people who are… sad, or having a hard time, and turns them, _against their will_ , into his puppets. It’s not their fault. But sometimes we… Chat Noir and I… we can’t always guarantee we’ll be able to rescue these people and keep their identity a secret. I found out today that one of these victims was forced to withdraw from school, because of undue worry and prejudice.”

“But Ladybug!” a reporter said. “How can we be sure that these people won’t do it again? They’ve already proven weak to Papillon’s magic. How can we trust them?”

Marinette was taken aback. “That’s not—”

“Yeah!” another reporter chimed in. “We don’t want those _corrupted_ people walking among us!”

“But it’s not their—” Ladybug’s Miraculous chirped. She had sixty seconds left before she became Marinette again. “Please,” she begged, as she took out her yo-yo and prepared to swing back home. “Please reconsider! They are _victims_ of Papillon, _not_ the true villains! Please!”

When Marinette tumbled back into her own room, and Tiki came free of her earrings, she sighed. “D’you think they’ll listen?”

Tiki shrugged. “Maybe,” she said.

 

When Marinette trudged into school the next day, she found the students buzzing with gossip. Before she could ask one of her classmates what happened, Alya caught her arm and dragged her into a bathroom stall.

“Alya!” Marinette squeaked. “It’s… kinda cramped…”

“Nevermind your cramp, Marinette, something _huge_ just happened!” Alya shoved her way into Marinette’s space. “Remember what I told you about Nathanaël yesterday?”

Marinette had a bad feeling about this. “Yeah…?”

“Well, yesterday, Ladybug made a _speech_ about how we shouldn’t judge the people who got akumatized, can you believe it! Isn’t she the _coolest_?” She punched a few buttons on her smartphone and showed the screen to Marinette.

Marinette didn’t really want to see her alter-ego make a fool of herself on screen. She pushed it aside. “Ladybug says stuff all the time, Alya.”

“Yeah, but this time…” Alya took a deep breath. “The news _pushed back_ , and called Ladybug naïve and too young to be doing this kind of work.”

Marinette shot up. “What! But Ladybug’s been doing just fine! They let her do everything before, what’s the big problem now?”

“Down girl, I didn’t know you were such a big Ladybug fan,” Alya laughed. “It’s because of what she said. I guess they’re just like the parents; they don’t trust people who’ve been akumatized. They’ve been running news specials all day and night.”

“That’s…” Marinette hit herself in the head with her palm. “Stupid.”

If Alya thought Marinette’s actions were weird, she didn’t show it. “Anyway, that’s not the point. Nathanaël committed suicide last night.”

Marinette’s shriek could be heard from outside the building. “ _What_?!”

Alya’s sigh fell to the bathroom floor like a sack of rocks. “Yeah. I guess he heard the news coverage. Or his parents did. Or someone told him.”

“Even after Ladybug… even after Ladybug _told_ them… even after she _said_.” Marinette didn’t know if she was sad or angry or both or neither. Her hands curled into fists and her thin arms trembled with the force of her rising emotion, shaking her bones and rattling her ribs and heart. “That’s not fair. That’s not—” Marinette didn’t notice she was crying until she felt the tears cool as they fell from her cheeks to the tile floor.

Alya wrapped her arms around Marinette, rubbing her back soothingly. Marinette stayed ramrod still in Alya’s embrace. She wanted to punch something. Kick something. Hurt something. Alya didn’t deserve that.

When Marinette’s tears finally dried, Alya pulled back, one hand still on her shoulder. “I’ll distract the teacher for you, okay? Take however long you need.”

Marinette nodded her thanks and watched as Alya backed out of the bathroom.

Tiki flew out from Marinette’s purse. “Are you okay, Marinette?” she asked.

“I don’t understand,” Marinette said. Her voice was flat. “I don’t get it. I asked them to—why can’t they _understand_?”

“They don’t have to,” Tiki said. “They can say what they want. And they will. We can’t stop that.”

“But we _should_. Isn’t that what we’re for? Isn’t that what _Ladybug_ is for? Isn’t that what a superhero is?!”

“A superhero protects the people,” Tiki said.

Marinette laughed bitterly. “From _who_?”

Tiki smiled. “Don’t you have to choose?”

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed; drop me a line!


End file.
